During my time in Ethiopia, I came across a small NGO with the name, A Glimmer of Hope.
In this case laid out by Paul Salopek, the glimmer is education, plain and clear.
Education is the only challenge to the entrenched act of child brides; girls as young as 6 years old are married off to older suiters in over 40 countries in the world. Education is the only glimmer of hope for breaking this imprisoning societal norm, that steals the youth, vitality, and health of so many girls in the developing world.
Salopek follows the story of Tihun, a 7 year old Amharic girl, before, during, and after the
arranged marriage she dreads like death itself; perhaps the young girl can see into the future; one that is bleak, with no options, no choices, a clouded dream.
"Tihun's short legs can't carry her away fast enough from the death of her childhood. Her wedding is five days away. And she is 7 years old."
Salopek continues,
"In the smoky villages of rural Ethiopia--some of the least educated communities in the world--the girls who step into crude schoolrooms are revolutionaries in braids...
The most far-reaching injustice of child marriage by far, however, is probably its most subtle: It pries millions of young girls out of school. Confined to their husbands' homes, and cheated of the benefits of education, legions of demoralized children worldwide are condemned to lives of ignorance and dire poverty from which they rarely escape, and which they endure with numbed desperation."
Education, the chance at enlightened thinking, the chance to break the cycle of imprisonment for these children around the world, is truly the glimmer of hope.
